U.S. patent number 7,142,124 [Application Number 11/024,915] was granted by the patent office on 2006-11-28 for packaging incorporating volume-measurement capability using rfid tags.
This patent grant is currently assigned to International Business Machines Corporation. Invention is credited to Hye S. Chi, Timothy W. Crockett, Jeff D. Thomas.
United States Patent |
7,142,124 |
Chi , et al. |
November 28, 2006 |
Packaging incorporating volume-measurement capability using RFID
tags
Abstract
A method and system is disclosed for enabling quantities of
bulk-type products to be determined using RFID tags that can also
be used to determine the existence of product or packaging
containing RFID tags. Packaging and/or containers for the bulk
products are configured so that the RFID tags contained thereon
provide an indication of an approximate relative quantity of the
bulk material. More specifically, the position and/or shielded or
unshielded state of RFID tags are utilized to identify a quantity
of the bulk-type material.
Inventors: |
Chi; Hye S. (Raleigh, NC),
Crockett; Timothy W. (Raleigh, NC), Thomas; Jeff D.
(Raleigh, NC) |
Assignee: |
International Business Machines
Corporation (Armonk, NY)
|
Family
ID: |
36639739 |
Appl.
No.: |
11/024,915 |
Filed: |
December 28, 2004 |
Prior Publication Data
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|
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Document
Identifier |
Publication Date |
|
US 20060145880 A1 |
Jul 6, 2006 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
340/612; 342/124;
340/572.1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G01F
23/284 (20130101); G01F 23/68 (20130101); H01Q
1/22 (20130101); H01Q 1/2208 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
G08B
21/00 (20060101); G08B 13/14 (20060101) |
Field of
Search: |
;340/612,572.1,572.7,572.8,615,617,618 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Pham; Toan N.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Synnestvedt & Lechner LLP
McBurney; Mark E.
Claims
We claim:
1. A method of detecting an amount of material in a container, said
container having one or more RFID tags attached thereto,
comprising: providing automated shielding means for selectively
shielding one or more of said one or more RFID tags; and
associating one or more of said RFID tags with a predetermined
amount of material stored in said container, wherein: said RFID
tags are selectively shielded based on the amount of material in
said container.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein said automated shielding means
includes a shielding actuator that senses the amount of material in
the container and actuates the selective shielding of one or more
of said one or more RFID tags based on the sensed amount.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein said shielding actuator includes
a scale for weighing the material contained in the container.
4. The method of claim 2, wherein said shielding actuator includes
a pressure-sensitive actuator that actuates the shielding based
upon the amount of pressure applied thereto.
5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: sensing signals being
emitted by unshielded RFID tags; determining, based on the sensed
signals, the amount of material in the container; and providing a
discernible indication of the determined amount of material.
6. A system of detecting an amount of material in a container, said
container having one or more RFID tags attached thereto,
comprising: means for providing automated shielding means for
selectively shielding one or more of said one or more RFID tags;
and means for associating each of said RFID tags with a
predetermined amount of material stored in said container, wherein:
said RFID tags are selectively shielded based on the amount of
material in said container.
7. The system of claim 6, wherein said automated shielding means
includes a shielding actuator that senses the amount of material in
the container and actuates the selective shielding of one or more
of said one or more RFID tags based on the sensed amount.
8. The system of claim 7, wherein said shielding actuator includes
a scale for weighing the material contained in the container.
9. The system of claim 7, wherein said shielding actuator includes
a pressure-sensitive actuator that actuates the shielding based
upon the amount of pressure applied thereto.
10. The system of claim 6, further comprising: means for sensing
signals being emitted by unshielded RFID tags; means for
determining, based on the sensed signals, the amount of material in
the container; and means for providing a discernible indication of
the determined amount of material.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to radio frequency
identification tags, and more particularly, to the use of RFID tags
to track quantities of loose materials or items.
2. Description of the Related Art
Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology tags are devices
that are affixed to various articles so that these articles may be
easily tracked during movement from one point to another, or
identified through a sales transaction. Any type of object,
including assets, animals, and people can be tagged so that they
may be identified or tracked automatically via a reader, which is
typically connected to a host computer that may contain additional
data related to an object's identification number associated with
the RFID tag. In addition, RFID tags generally contain program
information about an object to which it is attached. Through the
use of such information, RFID technology may be used to identify
objects automatically and without manual handling operations as is
required in most bar code systems.
The operation of typical RFID tagging systems is well known and is
not described in detail herein. Many examples describing the
operation of such systems can be found, for example, U.S. Pat. No.
5,822,714 assigned to International Business Machines Corporation,
the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein.
With the proliferation of RFID tags on products, it is not
surprising that their existence on products was leveraged for use
outside of the retail establishment from which they were sold. RFID
tags were originally designed to assist merchants in tracking
inventory within the store and in processing the sale of the
merchandise at the check out counter. However, savvy consumers
quickly realized that they could also use the existence of the RFID
tags in products that they purchased to, for example, keep an
electronic inventory of food products, staples, etc. within the
kitchen or elsewhere in the home. For example, the same technology
used to monitor the existence of products in the store can now be
used to monitor the existence of products in the home.
However, a problem exists when an item is of a type that is not
consumed all at once and that contains bulk or loose quantities of
the product. For example, items such as cereal, flour, sugar and
the like will typically be used over a period of days or weeks, and
existing RFID tag systems will merely provide the consumer with
information regarding the existence or non-existence of the
packaging containing the bulk item. Thus, for example, to a
consumer, a full, unopened box of cereal will look identical to an
almost completely empty box of cereal, i.e., in both cases, the
consumer will only know that there is a box of the cereal in the
pantry but will not be aware of the quantity of cereal within the
box. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a method and system
for monitoring quantities of bulk-type items using RFID tags.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is a method and system for enabling
quantities of bulk-type products to be determined using RFID tags
that can also be used to determine the existence of product or
packaging containing RFID tags. Packaging and/or containers for the
bulk products are configured so that the RFID tags contained
thereon provide an indication of an approximate relative quantity
of the bulk material. More specifically, the position of RFID tags
are utilized to identify a quantity of the bulk-type material. This
can be performed by numerous methods described and claimed
herein.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating the basic steps of the present
invention.
FIGS. 2A 2D are a perspective view, a side cutaway side view of a
full bin, and a side cutaway view of a half-full bin, all in
accordance with one embodiment of the present invention; and
FIGS. 3A 3F illustrate an alternative embodiment of the present
invention. FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C show a perspective, cutaway side,
and top view of a container; FIG. 3D is a front view of a
container, looking in the direction of stationary viewing window;
FIG. 3E is a cutaway side view of the retractable guide assembly;
and FIG. 3F illustrates in greater detail an embodiment of
retractable guide.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating the basic steps of the present
invention. At step 100, a container in which a bulk material is
stored is equipped with means for selectively shielding plural RFID
tags on or associated with the container. At step 102, the
container is also equipped with a shielding actuator that senses
the amount of material contained in the container, relative to the
capacity of the container, and actuates shielding based upon the
sensed amount. The numerous methods of configuring an actuator for
this purpose will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the
art, particularly in view of the described embodiments below.
At step 104, a correlation is made between the sensed amount of
material in the container with the selective shielding of the
plural RFID tags. For example, a processor can be configured to
correlate the sensed condition of a half-full container (by weight,
volume, mass, or any other method) with the shielding of a
particular RFID tag or group of RFID tags, such that, for example,
when all RFID tags are shielded except for a particular RFID tag,
the sensing of signals from that RFID tag indicate the half-full
condition.
At step 106, actual signals being emitted by unshielded RFID tags
are sensed, and, based upon the sensed RFID tag or tags, the amount
of material in a container is determined, and at step 108, a
discernable indication of the determined amount, e.g., a display on
a computer screen, a readout on a LED indicator, etc. is provided
so that a user of the system can identify how much of the bulk
material is contained within the container.
Using the method described above, it is possible to ascertain an
approximation of how much bulk material is contained within a
container, using the RFID tags associated therewith. This solves
the problem described above, wherein all that is known is the
existence or lack of existence of the container, based upon the
sensing of the existence of an RFID tag.
The following description and figures describe alternative
embodiments for enabling the above-described method. It is
understood that the present claims are not limited to these
embodiments, that is, they are provided for purpose of example and
explanation only.
FIGS. 2A 2D illustrate a first embodiment of the present invention.
In this embodiment, a container 200 containing a bulk material 202
is made of a material that will block the transmission from an RFID
tag contained therein. As is well known, electrically-conductive
materials will shield the radio-frequency signals emitted by the
RFID tags, thereby preventing them from reaching the device reading
the signals. Most metals will block the signals, as will some
liquids and even plastics.
A slot 204 is formed within a wall of the container, e.g., the top
206 of the container, through which an indicator member, e.g., a
plunger 208, is slidably inserted. Affixed along the length of the
plunger 208 are a plurality of RFID tags 210, 212, 214, and 216.
When more of the plunger 208 is outside the container, more RFID
tags are exposed.
A bottom portion of the plunger 208 is preferably provided with a
stop member 218 that prevents the plunger 208 from being easily
pushed below a level of the bulk material 202 contained within the
container. In other words, the stop member 218 is configured so
that, under normal operation and use, it will simply "ride" on top
of the bulk material 202. The stop member 218 can be the same shape
as the container (square in this example) but it is not restricted
to being the same shape. For example, a plate-shaped stop member
(essentially disk-shaped) can also function to stop the plunger 208
from burying into the bulk material 202.
In use, a user will lift the top 206 off of the container 200 by
grasping the plunger 208 and lifting upward. The user then removes
whatever bulk material 202 they wish to use and replaces the top
and plunger back onto the container 200. As the level of the bulk
material 202 contained in the container decreases, the plunger 208
will move down into the container accordingly, thereby leaving a
different and smaller number of the RFID tags outside of the
container. By calibrating the system so that the number of exposed
RFID tags corresponds to a proportion of the bulk material
contained in the container, readings by the RFID reader from the
RFID tags on the indicator member will provide an indication of
approximately how full or how empty the container is.
An alternative embodiment is illustrated in FIGS. 3A 3F. In this
embodiment, a stationary viewing window 341 in the side of
container 300 functions in conjunction with a retractable guide
assembly 340 to expose one or portions of two of the RFID tags
among the plural tags 320, 322, 324, 326, 328, 330, and 332
contained thereon, and block transmissions from any RFID tags that
are not within the stationary viewing window 341.
FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C show a perspective, cutaway side, and top view
of container 300. A retractable guide assembly 340 is situated in
the vertical member 304 of an L-shaped support structure 303. A
horizontal member 305 of L-shaped support structure 303 provides a
support surface for the bulk material 302 contained in the
container 300. As described further below, the retractable guide
assembly and horizontal member 305 function to enable the movement
of the retractable guide assembly to selectively shield some of the
RFID tags 320 332 while leaving one or portions of two of the RFID
tags unshielded.
FIG. 3D is a front view of container 300, looking in the direction
of stationary viewing window 341. The view of FIG. 3D is a cutaway
view so that the hidden RFID tags 320, 322, 326, 328, 330, and 332
can be seen in the drawing, although they are actually hidden from
view. A moveable viewing window 342 allows RFID tag 324 in FIG. 3D
to be exposed and thus unshielded.
The moveable viewing window 342 is moved up or down in front of the
RFID tags 320 332 depending upon the amount of bulk material 302
contained in the container 300.
FIG. 3E is a cutaway side view of the retractable guide assembly
340. Two retractable guides, 344 and 346 are connected at the top
and bottom of moveable viewing window 342, respectively. The
retractable guides 344 and 346 have telescoping capability, that
is, they can increase or decrease in length in a manner similar to
an automobile radio antenna. FIG. 3F illustrates in greater detail
an embodiment of retractable guide 346; retractable guide 344 is
essentially identical but is oriented in a reverse vertical
position.
As can be seen from FIG. 3F, a series of progressively larger
telescoping elements are provided, such that the smaller element
can nest into the larger element adjacent thereto. In this manner,
the retractable guides can expand or contract when urged in the
appropriate direction. This enables the moveable guide window to be
manipulated so that it is, at any given time, shielding all but one
or two (portions of two) RFID tags.
To facilitate the movement of the moveable viewing window 342 in a
manner that is correlated to the amount of bulk material 302 in the
container 300, numerous methods can be employed. For example, a
scale can be placed in the bottom of container 300 in, for example,
the horizontal element 305 of L-shaped support structure 304 the
scale can be an electronic scale that includes a processor
programmed to trigger a mechanical movement to urge the moveable
viewing window in an upward or downward direction based upon the
type of material contained in the container and the overall weight
of that material. The programming needed to perform this operation
can be accomplished in a well know manner by a programmer of
ordinary skill and details thereof are not discussed further
herein.
The actual facilitation of movement of the retractable guides 344
and 346 can be coordinated with the output of the scale via a motor
that is controlled by the processor.
An alternative embodiment for facilitating movement of the
retractable guides 344 and 346 is to utilize a "closed system"
whereby a fluid (air, a liquid, etc.) is placed in a fluid
reservoir in such a manner that downward pressure on the base of
container 300 forces the fluid to move in such a way that it causes
and upward force against the movable viewing window 342. For
example, a "bubble area" can be situated beneath the base, so that
materials in the container push down on the bubble area. The bubble
area can comprise a flexible material, e.g., soft plastic, that can
contain the fluid but that offers flexibility when pressure is
applied thereto. Thus, the more material that is placed atop the
bubble area, the greater the downward pressure on the fluid
contained therein, and thus the greater the upward pressure on the
movable viewing window 342. The opposite is also true, i.e., when
less material is placed atop the bubble area, the lesser the
downward pressure is on the bubble area, and the lesser the upward
pressure is on the movable viewing window 342. Using well-known
calibration techniques, the system can be adjusted so that the RFID
tags that are unshielded by virtue of their being situated in front
of the moveable viewing window 342 can be associated with the
various levels of material in the bin. The calibration process can
take into consideration the different weights of different
materials so that, for example, it may be set to be more sensitive
to small pressure changes when a light cereal in in the container
and be set to be less sensitive to small movements when a heavier
material, such as sugar, is in the container.
Other ways to deal with the variations in the pressure exerted by
various materials, and compensating for them, are also
contemplated. For example, as noted above, a full bin of sugar will
likely weigh considerably more (and thus exert considerably more
pressure than) than a full bin of cereal. Different bases can be
utilized with different weights of pressure being associated with
different materials. Alternatively, settings can be implemented
whereby a user can adjust the pressure exerted depending upon the
type of material contained in the bin. Numerous other methods will
be apparent to a designer of such a system.
The sensing of the RFID tags, and the determination as to the level
of material within the bin based on the sensed RFID tags, can be
accomplished using software means. For example, a processor can be
configured to read certain RFID tags by their identification
information, and, based upon sending the signals from a particular
tag, display a value representing a particular quantity of material
contained within the bin that is associated with that tag.
The above-described steps can be implemented using standard
well-known programming techniques. The novelty of the
above-described embodiment lies not in the specific programming
techniques but in the use of the steps described to achieve the
described results. Software programming code which embodies the
present invention is typically stored in permanent storage of some
type, such as permanent storage of a processor located within the
container, or associated with the RFID reader device. In a
client/server environment, such software programming code may be
stored with storage associated with a server. The software
programming code may be embodied on any of a variety of known media
for use with a data processing system, such as a diskette, or hard
drive, or CD-ROM. The code may be distributed on such media, or may
be distributed to users from the memory or storage of one computer
system over a network of some type to other computer systems for
use by users of such other systems. The techniques and methods for
embodying software program code on physical media and/or
distributing software code via networks are well known and will not
be further discussed herein.
It will be understood that each element of the illustrations, and
combinations of elements in the illustrations, can be implemented
by general and/or special purpose hardware-based systems that
perform the specified functions or steps, or by combinations of
general and/or special-purpose hardware and computer
instructions.
These program instructions may be provided to a processor to
produce a machine, such that the instructions that execute on the
processor create means for implementing the functions specified in
the illustrations. The computer program instructions may be
executed by a processor to cause a series of operational steps to
be performed by the processor to produce a computer-implemented
process such that the instructions that execute on the processor
provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the
illustrations. Accordingly, the figures herein support combinations
of means for performing the specified functions, combinations of
steps for performing the specified functions, and program
instruction means for performing the specified functions.
Although the present invention has been described with respect to a
specific preferred embodiment thereof, various changes and
modifications may be suggested to one skilled in the art and it is
intended that the present invention encompass such changes and
modifications as fall within the scope of the appended claims.
* * * * *